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After playing more than 200 new releases this year, I'm formally wrapping things up on 2025. My annual roundup is published, and I feel content with the ultimate rankings, despite being aware a host of stellar titles likely fell under the radar. Now, there's job is to except relax, unplug a little, and perhaps take a nice walk in the— ah crap, found another amazing experience. So much for my peaceful respite!

A Premature Favorite Surfaces

In my more off-hours play, often set aside for a few oddball curiosities, I've discovered potentially my initial top game of 2026. Sol Cesto is a peculiar roguelike for Windows PC that deconstructs a traditional labyrinth explorer into a luck-based game of major consequence risk and reward. Consider this an early adopter's heads-up: If you relish being aware of a game before it hits the mainstream, give Sol Cesto a try so you can make a dent in your indie credit card.

A Strategic Roguelike Twist

Sol Cesto is a strategy-focused dungeon crawler that's different from everything I'm familiar with. The premise is that you are tasked with descending into a dungeon, descending floor after floor to find the sun, which has gone missing from this mythical realm. When you play, this creates some familiar roguelike structure. Select a character who has stats and abilities, clear floor after floor of foes, acquire some passive buffs (which are teeth), and vanquish a few stage-ending champions. Straightforward, right!

The Distinctive Core Mechanic

The method by which you actually clear a dungeon room, however. Every time you begin a fresh level, the game presents a four-by-four matrix of boxes. Each square either contains a monster, a loot box, a trap, or a healing strawberry. To make a move, you just select on one of the four rows, but the specific tile you end up on is up to chance.

You might see a row with multiple foes, a strawberry, and a treasure chest in it. You start with a 25% chance of landing on any given square in a row.

Subsequently, your probabilities change. So do you press your luck, or do you opt on a safer line first and attempt some safer moves early? This is the push-your-luck gameplay at play in Sol Cesto, and it's captivating once you get its rhythm.

Manipulating Probability

The roguelike twist is that your percentages can be shaped during an attempt by gathering teeth that alter which objects you're more likely to land on. To illustrate, you might get a perk that will reduce the probability of encountering a trap, but will also decrease the odds of finding a reward too.

• Creating a build is about influencing the statistics to the utmost to have a higher chance at getting your desired outcome.
• During one attempt, I invested my stat upgrades toward physical attack/defense and selected all the teeth I could that would boost my chances of being drawn to monsters of that variety.
• During a separate session, I built my character around reward boxes and coupled it with a perk that would reduce the power of surrounding monsters whenever I secured loot.

The build options are limited, but it provides ample to experiment with to enable you to influence the odds according to your strategy.

A Persistent Risk

Unsurprisingly, it's still a game of chance. There's always the risk that you have a likely outcome to hit the preferred space but ultimately choose a monster that would deplete your last bit of health. Each click is a gamble, so you feel ongoing pressure as you navigate a level and choose whether to continue selecting or to advance to the next floor as opposed to pushing your luck.

Tools such as enemy-killing bombs help cut down the chance, as do some character abilities. One hero's unique ability, charged after clearing four squares, allows players to select a vertical column in place of a horizontal line during that action. Should you use your cards right, you can hold that ability for the right moment to avoid a risky decision. You'll find an astonishing level of strategy in the simple act of clicking.

The Road to 1.0

Sol Cesto is remaining in its preview phase, and it has at least one more update scheduled until the complete edition is released. An additional hero and a additional end-level foe are planned for release sometime in January. The official version likely won't be much later, but the studio haven't announced a final date yet.

A Parting Thought

No matter when its 1.0 launch occurs, you ought to put Sol Cesto on your radar. For the past week, I've been thoroughly captivated with it, discovering its hidden nuances and saving my accumulated currency every session to unlock a steady stream of persistent upgrades, featuring fresh adventurers and items I can buy while playing. As of now, I am yet to reached the bottom, and I get the feeling I'll continue attempting that goal when 1.0 finally hits. I'm committed for the entire experience.